On This Day | Lap Sap Chung and the lasting Hong Kong legacy of artist and author Arthur Hacker — from the SCMP archive
- On the 10th anniversary of the death of Arthur Hacker, we look back at his life and his most famous creation, the rubbish monster Lap Sap Chung
- The Post paid tribute to the avid artist and author after he died of pneumonia on October 9, 2013
By Anna Healy Fenton
Arthur Hacker MBE, renowned artist, historian, author and creator of an endearing emblem of 1970s Hong Kong - the litterbug Lap Sap Chung - died in hospital of pneumonia on Wednesday. He was 81.
Through his pop art-style, pen and ink drawings, Hacker recorded the colourful street life in Hong Kong in the swinging 1970s, from bell-bottomed boys and cheeky girls in Wan Chai to motley stray dogs and visiting sailors.
But most Hongkongers know Hacker best for his monstrous creation, litterbug Lap Sap Chung. In 1972 the Information Services Department (ISD), where Hacker worked, launched a campaign to clean up Hong Kong. Hacker created public enemy number one - a green, long-snouted monster with red spots and a forked tail. Lap Sap Chung was supposed to be repulsive, but ended up looking almost endearing instead. Television had just arrived in Hong Kong, and Lap Sap Chung became an unexpected folk villain.
Hacker arrived in Hong Kong in December 1967 to work for the colonial government’s ISD. He had studied at the Royal College of Art in England and then worked on Fleet Street.
He was multitalented, a writer and historian as well as a painter and illustrator. He was an avid collector of books, historic postcards and early Hong Kong and China photos, many collected in his book China Illustrated.
Hacker’s Hong Kong was another of many books, both humorous and serious, that he wrote and illustrated. His prolific output also included beautiful postage stamps for the Hong Kong post office.